The Trix Triumphant
by Kalakan018
Summary: The Trix attack Magix without warning, and their new powers make their victory a certainty. Victorious after three years of near-constant defeat, what revenge do the Witches have in mind for the Winx Club? Set after Season 3, this story will get pretty dark as the Trix finally and totally have their revenge on the fairies who dared to stand in their way.
1. The Trix Triumphant

**A/N:** This story is going to get rather dark, the first couple chapters are only mildly dark, but later entries will definitely be on the dark end. Also, there won't be any "darkest before the dawn" situations, there is no dawn here, only very unfortunate fairies, and victorious witches. I haven't written anything for FanFiction in over a decade, so Reviews are appreciated.

The Trix Triumphant

It happened without warning. No one was quite sure where their sudden increase in power had come from, but the results spoke for themselves.

The first signs of trouble were the unnaturally dark clouds looming over Magix. By the time they had spread far enough to be noticed at Alfea, the first phase of their plan was already complete. When the fairies and specialists (and a small group of witches) arrived at the edge of the city they were greeted not with crowds fleeing in terror, but clustered groups of civilians, all with a familiar purple glow in their eyes.

Her seductive, bone-chilling laugh floated on the wind. Riven and Musa both shivered as the sound brought uncomfortable memories to the front of their minds.

At least the apparent center of the problem was easy to spot. Magix City Hall had been totally engulfed by a structure of solid ice; its cause only too obvious to most of the students assembled on the outskirts of town.

Bloom turned to address them all, a look of determination on her face, her fiery red hair like a banner at the front of an army.

"We need to get to city hall, and however she's done it, it seems Darcy has spelled most of the population of Magix to try and stop us."

She turned to Sky now, her fiancé nodding as he anticipated her plan, turning to address his classmates.

"Specialists, most of the people in these crowds are not capable of flight, so keeping them contained here will be our job, we can't let any of them hinder the fairies' advance or end up in the crossfire."

The specialists responded in the affirmative, many already unsheathing their inactive weapons. Sky drew his as well, thumbing the activation switch as he gave one last instruction.

"Remember, these people are innocents, no matter how hard they may fight you. There will be no civilian casualties today. Now, forward! for Magix! And Red Fountain!"

As the specialists took the field they fanned out in squads, moving to contain and restrain as much of the hypnotized crowd as possible.

Bloom readied the fairies and witches as soon as they boys had moved in, taking charge with an ease that came from just over three years of experience in situations just like this.

"Alright fairies, we need to put an end to this as quickly as possible. Those of us with our Enchantix will take the fight straight to city hall, anyone with her Charmix will follow us, keeping to the rear in case backup is needed. Everyone else, help the boys with containment."

She turned towards the battle again, speaking only to her friends around her in a mildly sarcastic tone, "Now let's go see what our three favorite witches want this time... Enchantix!"

The crowd of fairies began their transformations, their outfits and wings changing and appearing as the magic washed over each one. They took to the air as a group and passed over the heads of the specialists grappling with the mindless mob. The boys had done a good job so far and the path to city hall was clear, so far so good...

The first lightning bolt struck faster than anyone had seen magical lightning strike before, a scream as one of the Charmix fairies dropped from the sky, landing hard on the pavement below, fortunately near a squad of specialists who were able to protect her from any encroaching civilians.

The chaotic weather patterns amplified as the fairies closed the distance to the tower of ice, and the Trix seemed to be holding nothing back. Bloom tried not to think about the details as more screams filled the air, she had always known Stormy was unstable, but she had to fight back tears as she realized that some of those fairies would likely not be getting up again, this needed to end, and it needed to end now.

Stormy's deranged cackling projected from the tower even as Bloom and Stella blasted a large opening in the ice, the Winx and other fairies rushing in to find Icy sitting calmly on a throne shaped from the ice.

"So nice of you to drop by pixies." Icy's feigned polite tone dripped with its usual cold venom. The ice witch was dressed in what seemed to be a more elaborate version of her standard witch attire; a tiara made of ice-like crystal sat atop her head, her cape had fur accents the same color as her hair, an embroidered pattern of thin silver added detail to her whole outfit, and her lipstick and eye shadow seemed to shimmer like light reflecting off an icy surface.

Bloom glared at Icy with fire in her eyes, "I don't know or care what this is about Icy, but it ends now!"

Icy laughed, a sound so devoid of positive emotion it almost couldn't be called laughter, and stood up from the throne, her heels clicking on the floor.

"What if my sisters and I don't feel like ending it, hmmm?"

Bloom gestured at the battle raging outside. "You're killing people out their Icy! Now stand down or I will bring you down!"

The smile on Icy's face was the stuff of nightmares.

"Technically, Stormy is killing people, but..." The smile vanished as she raised one hand, a storm of sharp icicles flew at the fairies, most of whom were quick enough to put up some form of shield or to attack the icicles themselves, a few cried out as icicles slashed across arms or punctured wings. "Also, no, I don't think I'll be standing down today, or ever again."

"Then you can only blame yourself for what happens next Icy! Dragon's Breath!" A blast of fire left Bloom's outstretched hands, burning through a hastily erected wall of ice and progressing straight toward Icy.

"Darkness Downpour!" A familiar voice joined the sounds of battle as Bloom's fire ball collided with a dark sheet of rain and fizzled out in a puff of smoke and steam.

A levitating Stormy settled on the ground next to Icy. Like her sister, the weather witch had acquired a new outfit as well; a somewhat stereotypical witch's hat, though of a color matching her dress, sat atop her hair, the tip drooping slightly, a pale pink pattern reminiscent of lightning bolts zig-zagged across her dress, and her tights had a pattern resembling dark clouds.

"You're going to have to try harder than that pixie!" Stormy practically vibrated with wild glee at the disbelief on the faces of many of the fairies.

Bloom only gritted her teeth and stood her ground. "All together now girls, they can't stop all of us! Stream of Fire!" her fellow Winx's voices joined hers, their attacks, and those of the other Enchantix fairies following the coursing river of fire to their intended targets.

"Solar Flare!" "Sonic Boom!" "Tecno Blast!" "Flower Power!" "Ocean Spray!"

A sixth voice spoke just as the fairies did, softer in volume, darker in tone, "Mind's Eye Mirror." Each fairy felt her senses begin to shift, and by the time they released their attacks they were all pointed in different directions, all believing they were still facing Icy.

Some of the attacks crashed into the ice walls of the tower, others struck their fellow fairies, leaving their unwitting targets sprawled on the ground in pain. The Winx struggled to stand up, their senses, particularly their vision, shifting in ways that made it hard to tell which direction up was. Everything they saw was warping, shifting, everything except the Trix. Darcy had joined them now, the obvious origin of the spell assaulting their minds.

"H-how...?" Tecna managed just the one words, her own voice sounding distorted to her. Darcy's responding laugh was somehow melodious and grating at the same time,

"Our newly amplified power," she gestured to her new outfit; light purple spiral patterns were set at various points on a side-slit dress that had replaced her previous bodysuit and pants, a dark purple hooded cloak concealed most of her, but her eyes, and the spiral patterns seemed to glow with an unearthly light. "It's called Covenix, you like?" Darcy's eyes flashed and all the fairies who had managed to regain their footing lost it again as a wave of vertigo crashed over them.

"Ice Prison." A biting, numbing cold crept over the legs and arms of the fallen fairies, growths of ice holding them to the ground. Bloom tried to concentrate, bring her inner fire to the surface, but Darcy's spell had made concentrating on anything all but impossible.

"All six pathetic Winx on their knees before us? I could get used to this..." Stormy's slasher smile was back as she loomed over the fairies.

Icy nodded in agreement, then stooped down, lifting Bloom's head up to meet her piercing gaze.

"Don't worry Princess... most of them will live, you didn't totally fail." She laughed as Darcy's eyes pulsed again, the dark power sapping the last bit of strength from each fairy, consciousness slipping from them all...


	2. Interlude

**A/N: **This minuscule excuse for a chapter isn't even a chapter at all! This is an interlude connecting Chapter 1 and the forthcoming Chapter 2, that provides a bit of necessary plot info and didn't really fit in either of the chapters it is set between. I'd like to thank the couple of you who already liked/followed the story and I hope the rest of it is enjoyable (in a dark, moderately disturbing, wicked sort of way)

**Disclaimer:** It occurs to me I forgot to put this in Chapter 1, so here it is now: I do not own the Winx Club in any way shape or form, it belongs to Mr. Iginio Straffi.

**Interlude**

"You're absolutely sure these will work Darcy?" Icy stared intently at her sister, who glanced up from the large, ancient tome in her hands,

"No, I don't, but I didn't know if the Covenix ritual would work and that obviously went well."

Icy nodded, so far, the things that book had to teach were as good if not better than it described. "And what about the Dragon Flame? I understand the effect it will have on regular powers, but-"

Darcy cut her off with a sharp exhale, "We've been over this, I'm sure it will suppress the Flame but I don't think it will drain it. And before you throw another witch-fit," She smirked as Icy shot her a glare fitting her name, "We'll have plenty of time to figure out another way for you to take the Flame afterward anyway."

Stormy was pacing on the other side of the relatively small chamber and looked up as her sister finished speaking.

"Are they done yet? I have some serious chaos to cause and I can't do that in here!"

Her older sisters both rolled their eyes, and Darcy waved her hand. A magic circle near her feet began to glow, a large pile of gemstones inside it began to pulse faintly with the influx of magic.

"Yes Stormy, we can perform the ritual now."

Stormy's mood flipped immediately and she practically bounced over to the circle, taking her place along its edge. Icy and Darcy took their places as well, all three beginning to channel their magic into the circle, their voices speaking in perfect sync,

"The power of three opens the way, the power of three controls the flow. Three, in triumph, claim the spoils of victory…"

Darcy glanced down at the gems, watching them pulse with a brighter, more constant glow. It seemed to be working so far. She allowed a small smile as some of the gems began to grow and change shape. In the next few hours, their victory would be complete...


	3. To the Victors, the Spoils

**A/N:** I was going to wait a couple more days to post this, but thanks to an encouraging review from CookieJam, I've decided to post this one a bit earlier, so without further ado, the actual Chapter 2

**To the Victors, the Spoils**

Bloom woke with a sharp cough, the act dragging her out of a dreamless sleep with a disorienting amount of force. She felt weak, sluggish, her eyes adjusting slowly to the dim lighting of... wherever she was. Her confusion lasted only moments as her memories came back, a small trickle at first, then a rushing torrent.

The dark clouds, gathering the fairies and specialists and witches, the ice castle, the mob of controlled city-folk. The lightning! the Trix! Darcy's spell! The thought of Darcy's spell made her stomach turn, the overwhelming sensations she'd been forced to feel rushing back through her memory.

She struggled to her feet, observing her surroundings. She was in a small, dark chamber, lit by a single torch she could see through a barred door that kept her inside. She raised her hands to channel the Dragon Flame, and finally noticed a matching pair of bracers on her forearms.

She ran one hand over the opposite bracer, the material felt almost like glass, but she could hardly feel its touch against her arm, almost like it wasn't there.

Deciding to worry about that after she escaped, Bloom raised her hands again and focused on blowing the cell door off its hinges, but instead of a rush of inner fire, she felt only a muted warm sensation, and the two bracers pulsed with soft light. A few more attempts yielded the same results; the bracers were suppressing her magic.

She took hold of one with one hand and tried to pull it down and off her arm, but despite the fact that the bracer seemed neither tightly attached or heavy, it would not budge. Finding that the matching bracer seemed to have the same properties, she tried the only thing she could think of and slammed the bracer against the cell wall, resulting in no damage to the magic item at all, and resonating pain in her arm.

A familiar laugh drew her attention to the door of the cell. Icy stood on the other side, grinning wickedly at Bloom's futile struggles.

"Don't bother princess, you won't be getting out of those, well... ever!" The witch opened the cell door and beckoned to her, "Now move it pixie, some of us have worlds to conquer!"

Bloom glared at her defiantly. "Even without my magic, there's no way I'm going to do something just because you tell me to Icy."

Icy rolled her eyes, "Ugh, I hate that defiant streak all you fairies seem to be born with. I guess I'll just skip to the fun part then..." Icy held up a mirror of some sort, and Bloom saw in it an image of Sky and his fellow specialists, in larger cells like hers, crowded together, restrained with more mundane methods than her magic, but still unable to do anything to escape.

"Come with me **now** or I'll go pay your blonde boy-toy a nasty visit..." Icy conjured up a spike of ice in her hand, and looked meaningfully at the sharp point at the end.

Shock and fear passed through Bloom's eyes and she stepped over in Icy's direction, "Ok! ok! just, please don't hurt him." Doing anything Icy wanted felt wrong, but Bloom would have to bide her time, a chance to escape would present itself without unnecessarily endangering her future husband.

As Icy led her through a series of winding passages, Bloom thought about using the bracers on her arms to strike Icy from behind. But the passages they moved through all looked the same, and seemed to go on for quite some time; if she attacked Icy now, even successfully, she might be lost down here for quite a while, wherever here was.

After a while (any sense of time Bloom had had before waking up in that cell was long gone), they reached a set of stairs, and through a door at the top of those stairs: a room that, given its design and appearance could only exist in the lower levels of Cloud Tower, the school for witches.

They were not alone. Darcy and Stormy, as well as all five of the other Winx girls, were already present, the witches looking mildly bored, and the fairies' expressions ranging from angry to sad to afraid, but all brightened slightly when they saw Bloom.

"Bloom!" "Bloom are you alright?" "She didn't hurt you, did she?"

"I'm alright girls, I'm so glad you're all ok." She smiled as best she could at her friends, though there wasn't too much to smile at right now.

"Yes, yes, you're all just so happy to be reunited." Icy's tone was arrogant and mocking, "Savor it, you won't have much else to be happy about…" The Winx all glared at her, though the matching sets of bracers they all wore prevented them from doing much besides glare. A few moments silence allowed them to process the situation, and all six fairies came to the same horrible conclusion…

"I can see by those suddenly sad expressions that you've finally wrapped your bubble-headed pixie brains around the truth." Darcy was smiling as wickedly as ever as she spoke, "We won, you lost, and this time it was the war, not just the battle."

Stormy couldn't help but chime in, her enthusiasm causing little sparks to crackle around her, "Thanks to our new power, once you brats were out of the fight, nothing could stop us!"

Some of the Winx gasped, and Icy gave them a moment to let their mind's wander before continuing.

"Don't worry, most of the idiots who followed you into battle are still alive. Most of the fairies and specialists, including all of your true loves. We had to make an example of the few witches who joined you though, you understand."

Each fairy had a look ranging from disgust, to despair, to pure rage on her face, and it took Bloom a moment to find her voice again. "So that's all this is? You just wanted to gloat before you finished us off as well?"

It was Darcy who responded this time, "No, no little princess, we're not going to kill you… at least not yet." She swept her gaze over all six fairies, eagerly drinking in the fear in their faces. "For one thing, Icy still needs you around until we can figure out how to extract that pesky Dragon Flame. As for the rest of you, you won't die, though you'll probably wish you would."

Icy took the floor again, looking at each fairy in turn. "You, princess," she spat the title more than said it, "will be staying here in Cloud Tower with me." Her haze turned to Flora next, "And your nature friend will be joining us, just in case the hubby isn't enough to ensure your cooperation…"

Bloom put a hand on Flora's shoulder protectively, and Flora's soft features changed to a fierceness most in the room were not used to.

"I'll die before I let you use me to get Bloom's power! You might as well just kill me now!" A tear came to Bloom's eye at her friend's passionate defense, all the Winx feeling a renewed sense of pride and trust in each other, their hearts echoing Flora's sentiment.

"Oh no, I guess that's our whole plan ruined then…" Stormy's tone was one of mock despair, "As if! You didn't think we'd know you girls would say something like that!"

Darcy finished her sister's thought, "You goody-goody pixies and your oh-so-endearing self-sacrificial tendencies." She chuckled and nodded to Icy, the ice witch stepping towards their captives menacingly.

"Here's the thing girls, we're going to leave you and all of your boys alive, and we're going to make each of you responsible for each other's lives. For example: If Bloom here decides not to cooperate with me, little miss nature here is going to experience a slow ice age…"

The Winx all looked at each other, afraid, but grimly determined, as long as they had each other, they could get through this.

Icy's tone reverted to its usual arrogant, half-bored state, "So yes, you two will be remaining here in Cloud Tower with me, princess sunshine and miss sing-a-long will be accompanying Darcy to Red Fountain," Stella gulped quietly and Musa turned a bit paler as Darcy gave the two fairies a dark smile, "And Stormy will be taking the techno-geek and princess girl power to Alfea with her." The Winx struggled only a little as each witch separated the pairs from the group, Aisha's actions in particular earning her a quick but painful shock.

"Welcome to your nightmares pixies… Revenge is going to be so sweet…"


	4. Freezing the Heart

**A/N: **Today we move into the actual dark parts of this story. Given her position as main character I thought it only fair that Bloom go first. But before we get to that, I need to answer a reviewer question:

The pairings in this story are the six usual heroic pairings: Bloom/Sky, Stella/Brandon, Musa/Riven, Tecna/Timmy, Flora/Helia, and Aisha/Nabu. While not central to the story, the pairings will be mentioned if their purpose suits the plot. Beyond those pairings there will be some Darcy/Riven, and a little splash of Darcy/? (Shows up in Chapter 5, blink and you'll miss it)

Now, on with the show!

Freezing the Heart

Revenge, Icy decided, was very sweet indeed. Only a couple days had passed since the Trix had truly declared their victory, and things were already settling into the new normal the triumphant witches had imposed on Magix.

Following the battle in the city, the students in Cloud Tower had fallen in line and most were actively supporting the new order of things, Icy chuckled a bit, making an example of those traitors had done quite a bit in fixing the others' attitudes.

The faculty at the three schools had been largely disposed of, most were too dangerous both in personal power and potential as symbols of rebellion to be left alive. The higher status students from Alfea and Red Fountain, royalty and nobility from many worlds, were valuable deterrents to anyone trying to unseat the world's new rulers, and as such, were kept relatively healthy.

The witches had various uses for the other students; the specialists used for manual labor or for more... personal duties, while the fairies were available for magical experiments and to sate Stormy's bloodthirsty tendencies.

But lording her power over those prisoners and the cowed citizens of Magix paled in comparison to the daily revenge Icy enacted upon the two Winx she had kept in Cloud Tower with her. With a smirk she rang a small bell sitting on a table beside her recently acquired throne, and after a few moments she was joined by the fallen princess of Domino, now dressed in a maid's outfit, a neutral expression on her face.

"Yes, my queen?" It took all of Bloom's willpower to keep any edge of sarcasm or anger out of her voice, but a quick glance at the only other occupant of the makeshift throne room gave her all the inspiration she needed to smother those desires.

Flora, mercifully asleep right now, was chained to the far wall, a number of dead plants in pots and containers around her. She had been there since the day before, when Icy had presented Bloom with her new clothes and her duties as Icy's personal attendant. A stubborn Bloom had told Icy exactly where she could shove her demand to be referred to as "my queen". Without a word Icy had had another witch secure Flora in the prepared chains, and another had brought in a cartload of flowers and other plants similar to the kinds Bloom had seen in Flora's area of the dorm many times. Once the plants were in place around the restrained fairy, Icy had waved her hand and a slow creep of cold had begun in each plant's pot, the life-sapping ice climbing up the roots into each plant, Flora screaming in agony as her connection to nature caused her to share the pain of the dying plant-life. Bloom had forced herself to be good after that, and she was determined to let her poor friend sleep, to give her this time away from the nightmare their lives had become.

Icy looked at her with a wicked smile that she would come to dread more and more with each passing day.

"I'm having trouble deciding something, and I think you're just the fairy to help with my choice." Bloom tried to keep her expression normal as the possibilities began to rush through her imagination. "I can't decide whether I want to torture your precious Sky today, or dispose of one of his classmates... What do you think?"

Bloom had turned whiter than Icy's hair, and couldn't keep the shock and horror from her face.

"No-no-no please Ic-my queen, please don't do this!" Bloom hated herself for begging like this, but without her magic, without any other option, she didn't know what else to do.

Icy's smile widened a bit as she took in the sight of her most hated enemy pleading with her so pathetically, the image brought a dark warmth to Icy's cold heart.

"I'm not doing anything princess," Icy had turned Bloom's royal title into her favorite, mocking way to refer to the defeated fairy, "You are choosing whether someone dies slowly, or Sky understands the kind of pain poor Flora went through yesterday."

The tears had started to flow just as they had the day before. Bloom knew her conscience could only live with one of those decisions, and that she would hate herself for making that decision all the same. "S-sky..." she managed to mutter his name, not able to bring herself to meet Icy's gaze again.

"Yes princess? What about Sky? Would you like me to do something with him?" Her words were as cold and painful as if she had stabbed Bloom in the heart with one of her icicles, and she never did quite figure out how she managed to choke out the next words.

"P-please my queen, please... torture Sky," her voice faltered and she fought the urge to break down crying, "a-and spare the other specialist..." She stood there sobbing, the reality of her situation making itself truly clear to her now.

Icy watched her for a few moments before speaking again.

"Very well princess, if that's what you want..." The ice witch got to her feet and stepped down from her throne, heading towards the door. "Come along now."

Bloom's body moved on automatic, falling instep behind Icy, her aching heart distracting her from anything else until a thought crossed her mind as they descended to the lowest level of the former school, Bloom finally aware enough to realize where they were going. "No, Icy please! I can't-" She started to back away from the door in front of them, the door to the Cloud Tower dungeon, as Icy turned and snapped at her.

"You can! And you will! You are going to watch every moment; you will not close your eyes or look away! Every time I catch you doing so will only make his suffering last longer, understand?" Icy grabbed Bloom's chin and forced her to look at her, the fairy's formerly bright eyes were dark and full of pain.

"Y-yes my queen, I understand..." She followed Icy through the door with a heavy heart, dreading what lay beyond.

Inside, fairies, specialists, and a few particularly rebellious city-folk were crammed into all the available cells. Bloom could not bring herself to look at any of them, the shame of her failure burning through her whole being. A voice brought her out of her self-loathing, a voice she never thought she would hear again after the events of the past couple days, and a voice that filled her with equal parts joy and sorrow.

"Bloom! you're alive! Oh, thank the Dragon..." The tears started to flow again when their eyes met, she wanted nothing more than to look into those eyes for eternity, and yet she also wanted to tear her gaze away from his in shame.

"Sky, I-" Icy cut her off immediately,

"Your dear princess has decided that you will be my anger outlet for today, isn't that so kind of her?" Icy's voice was full of mock-pleasantry as she took a couple steps closer to the cell Sky shared with Flora's boyfriend Helia, who was looking on with a calm fury in his eyes.

"N-no Sky that's not-" Bloom's attempt to clarify the situation was drowned out by a deep cry of pain as ice started to form around Sky's legs. The sharp-edged icicles were so cold they burned as the ice grew slowly up his body, stopping at times only to resume their assault whenever Sky seemed to regain his composure.

Helia rushed to his friend's side, but a spiked ice wall rose between the two specialists, one icicle pricking his leg and forcing him back.

"Ah ah ah, it's not your turn today pretty-boy." Icy wagged a finger at Helia teasingly before resuming her magical attack on the helpless Sky, a full-blown cackle echoing around the dungeon as the witch basked in her own power.

All the while Bloom had watched, each cry of Sky's pain breaking her heart anew. She had slumped to her knees, feeling sick and faint, but forcing herself to stay awake, to keep watching, suffering so that his suffering would be as short as possible. It seemed she had not yet run out of tears, a small mercy as she could not clearly see the events before her through the mist in her eyes.

Icy's fury was temporarily sated after what seemed and eternity to the devastated fairy beside her, her words cutting through Bloom's melancholy.

"On your feet princess, we're finished here." Icy reached down and pulled Bloom to her feet roughly, laughing as she nearly fell again, then turning on her heel and walking toward the exit, Bloom following behind her obediently, her conscious mind barely aware of anything but the pain raging through her heart.

Icy looked behind her for a moment, noticing Bloom's demeanor, and decided to give her another good kick.

"Maybe we should get some flowers for Flora on the way back to the throne room, i'm sure she'll be awake soon, and her last ones died so suddenly..."

Bloom kept walking, but Icy's words bit into her as they all seemed to. She understood Icy's meaning perfectly but still muttered a weak, "yes, my queen", hoping that her acquiescence would lessen Flora's inevitable suffering even a little. She spent the rest of the short trip praying to the Dragon that the other Winx were experiencing even the smallest degree less pain than she was...


	5. Endless Winter

**A/N:** So it seems i'm settling into posting every two days. Most of the chapters I have planned are already written, so a schedule like this hopefully gives people time to read each installment as it comes out. I'd like to thank everyone who has stopped by to read so far, i'm more than a bit blown away by the attention this little project of mine has gotten. Feel free to review with your questions, comments, etc.

Endless Winter

Flora awoke to a dull, throbbing pain in her head, not entirely unlike a hangover. As the world blurred into view, the fairy of nature tried to stretch and found something restricting her movements. A moment of confusion, followed by a rush of memories and emotions, brought her miserable situation back into focus.

She remembered the previous day; Icy "informing" her and Bloom of their new reality, the threats, the promises. She remembered Bloom's defiance and Icy's retaliation. She cried softly as echoes of the pain she had felt came back to her, her connection to nature had allowed her to feel every agonizing moment as Icy casually snuffed out the life of the plants that sat forgotten around Flora's current position.

"Oh look, Sleeping Beauty seems to have finally woken up." Icy's cold voice pulled Flora from her thoughts. The witch sat upon her recently acquired throne, smirking at Flora, one hand lazily twirling some of her hair, the other holding... was that a bouquet of tulips?

Icy noted the shift in Flora's gaze. "Do you like them? I let Bloom pick them out for you after she was such a good girl yesterday, thank you for helping me... encourage her." Flora winced at the venomous satisfaction in Icy's tone as the witch rose from her throne and strutted over to her, placing the bouquet at her feet.

"Who knew that seeing just one of her little friends in such pain would be enough to enforce a little compliance?" Icy paused theatrically for a moment, "Oh wait, I did." Icy took a moment to laugh at her own little joke before returning to the throne. "You'll have to ask her about our little visit with Sky yesterday as well..."

Flora paled slightly, only imagining what sort of horrid "visit" had taken place, but Icy continued speaking, leaving the fairy little time for those first thoughts.

"But today is a new day, and as Bloom is busy with other duties, it's just you and me for now..." Icy could not have looked more like a predator stalking prey than she did in that moment, causing Flora to shiver.

"I thought you'd like to know what some of your little fairy friends are up to, I know you care about them ever so much." With a wave of her hand, a partially rolled sheet of parchment appeared in front of Icy, her eyes scanning over it for a moment. "Let's see... Tillea," Flora recognized the name of a girl who had been in her 1st year magical history class, "It says here one of the covens requested her help for a ritual... ahh, yes, that one requires full exsanguination."

Flora gasped audibly, feeling mildly sick. Icy had spoken of Tillea's demise with the same disinterest one might read a weather report. Icy looked up from the parchment and laughed, "Oh I'm sorry, should I have kept that to myself?" She didn't wait for Flora's response, moving on to the next entry.

"Lunessa," Flora recognized this name as belonging to a Solarian fairy, an acquaintance of Stella's, "Oh dear, looks like little miss Lunessa was a bit rebellious so Stormy had to add her wings to her new trophy wall..."

The color drained from Flora's face as her tears began to flow again; even if a fairy survived having her wings removed, a very unlikely possibility, her access to magic was cut off forever. Flora had heard it described like having half of your senses removed, still able to experience everything, but in a muted, lifeless manner.

Icy watched the sorrow on Flora's face with wicked enjoyment. She had always known the nature fairy wore her heart on her sleeve. And being able to turn the fairy's empathic nature against her like this was simply delicious.

"Seems she isn't from any important families, and a fairy without wings is useless as a resource, so..." Flora sobbed as Icy left the sentence hanging, she knew what it meant and was grateful that Icy had at least spared her any more details.

This continued for quite some time, though Flora's tears ran dry long before Icy ran out of names. When she finally rolled up the list and put it aside, Flora breathed a small sigh of relief. Bloom arrived shortly after with a plate of food for Icy, and a bowl of tasteless but moderately filling mush that Icy had her feed to Flora. Forbidden to speak to each other, they could only communicate through expressions, trying to show each other support, but both recognizing the despair in the other's eyes.

Once Bloom had been dismissed, Icy turned her gaze back to Flora, a fresh spark of wickedness in her eyes.

"When Bloom and I visited Sky yesterday, your pretty-boy was such a good friend to him, it reminded me I need to pay some attention to him as well..." Flora's eyes went wide and the words spilled out of her mouth in a terrified jumble.

"Helia! No please my queen-" Flora remembered all too well the punishment for not addressing Icy properly, "-please don't hurt him, j-just let me talk to him, or-or take me, whatever you were going to do to him do it to me-" her voice faltered and her words devolved into half-babbled pleading, Icy watching with amusement the entire time.

Waiting until Flora had stopped for more than a moment, Icy stood up again, walking to Flora so the nature fairy could clearly see the wicked intent in her eyes, "But my dear Flora, his pain will bring you so much more suffering than anything I would do to you..."

The sick feeling from earlier had returned, and Flora wished she had tears left in her to cry. Instead, she simply hung there in the chains, sobbing, pleading in barely audible mumbles.

Icy ignored her and walked over to a full-length mirror standing off to one side of the room. A touch of magic transported the mirror to a spot in front of Flora. The mirror shimmered for a moment, then the image inside shifted to show the cell shared by Helia and Sky, and the two specialists inside.

The sight of her beloved helped Flora to find her voice again, and she cried his name, torn between the joy of seeing him again, and the terror of what could happen next.

"Now I know your man is a pacifist," Icy spat the last word like it was some kind of curse, "so I have the perfect afternoon excitement planned for him." She gave Flora a moment to register her words before she continued. "Unlike you fairies, specialists are a more... expendable resource, but I did promise not to kill any of you brat's true loves, so I think I'll leave dear Helia with the decision; he'll fight one of his fellow specialists in a deathmatch," Flora was pale as a ghost at this point, "I'll be sure to pick one of the freshmen so the match is horribly weighted in Helia's favor of course..."

Flora shook her head violently. "Helia would never kill any but the darkest demon, he won't harm a hair on that boy's head!" To Flora's shock, Icy responded with a chuckle.

"Oh, I know... That's why I'm giving him some conditions. The more he refuses to fight, the more you will suffer later..."

Flora's head drooped. If she could only talk to Helia, she would tell him not to betray his principles, no matter what happened to her, but there was no way Icy would let them near each other.

"I'm going to go make preparations, you be sure to enjoy the show once it starts." Icy chuckled at her and turned back just as she reached the door. "I want you to see and hear it all, so don't close your eyes now, if you do, I'll know..."

Flora shivered as Icy left the room. She had no idea how Icy would know if she closed her eyes but had no reason not to believe her. She spent every moment before the fight doing her best to mentally prepare herself, and praying that whatever Helia chose, it would at least go quickly.

While she waited, various witches brought plants into the room and situated them around her. Flora knew the unspoken threat that came with them; if Helia did not fight, she would receive a repeat of the previous night.

When the fight did finally happen, Helia's decision was clear. Flora watched him, watching the pain on his face, as he fought, fought harder than Flora had ever seen him fight, a sight that made her heart break over and over.

Mercifully for Flora, she fainted just before Helia landed the killing blow, but the darkness brought dreams, joyful dreams of a flowery spring, before all the color and beauty around her was destroyed by an unforgiving blizzard. Flora woke screaming, from one winter nightmare back to the one she now lived in.


	6. Blind

**A/N: **Now that Icy's had her fun, its time to see what her sisters are up to, starting with my personal favorite, Darcy. As always i'm very grateful to everyone who has taken time to read and I hope you've enjoyed the story so far, feel free to leave questions, reviews, etc... So without further ado, here's chapter 5!

Blind

Stella opened her eyes. At least, she thought her eyes were open. But if that were true, why couldn't she see anything? She blinked again and still nothing. Perhaps Darcy had done something to her sleep pattern, or blacked out the room with her magic. It would only make sense for her to hide something mean behind something kind.

When the Winx had been forced to part ways at Cloud Tower, Stella and Musa had taken comfort in each other's presence as they followed Darcy through a dark portal to Red Fountain. Darcy had claimed the specialist academy as her personal palace, and groups of witches watched over teams of specialists who had been put to work re-organizing and re-decorating the campus to better suit its dark mistress' tastes.

Darcy had taken Stella and Musa to what had once been an auditorium; Darcy had converted it into a throne room, and had only chuckled as Stella and Musa took in the darkened chamber's new appearance. The torches lit with a purple, magical fire, the fancy velvet curtains, the shelves of ancient magical tomes, everything about the place screamed "Darcy".

Darcy had addressed them both at this point, informing the two that they would be her guests, indefinitely, and that if they valued their lives and the lives of their loved ones (she had looked straight at Musa as she said this, making the musical fairy shiver), they would follow her orders without hesitation, and refer to her as Mistress from then on. Neither fairy was impressed by her demands, Stella remembering Musa's impressive glare that accompanied her own dismissive eye roll.

Those had both been mistakes. Darcy had said nothing, only looking at each fairy in turn, her eyes flashing a deep purple, then Musa was on the floor heaving, and Stella was screaming as what felt like fire raked across her mind.

After a moment (a minute? an hour? a year? It had felt like all of those simultaneously), the pain had stopped and both girls found themselves standing up once again, as though nothing had happened; Stella still wasn't sure whether it had or not.

Darcy beckoned for them to follow and their bodies seemed to move before they had consciously registered the motion. They followed her down a hall just off the "throne room" until they reached two doors, one on each side of the hall.

"These will be your rooms." She spoke matter-of-factly, allowing the girls to open the doors and look inside.

Stella had seen the inside of Red Fountain dorms many times before, and was surprised to find that this one was not much changed from a regular one. It was a bit spartan, the only furniture being a bed and a chair, and the closet was empty (had this been any other day the sight of an empty closet would have filled Stella with existential terror).

"Get comfortable darlings, we'll have some real fun tomorrow..." Stella hated Darcy's tone, you could never tell exactly what deeper motive lay behind every word she spoke.

Once Darcy had left and shut her inside, Stella tried the door, not at all surprised to find it locked, likely with magic. She called a simple good night to Musa, unable to think of anything else to say or do, and laid down on the surprisingly average-comfort bed, sleep coming easier than it seemed like it should.

Rousing herself from her memories, Stella found she still could not see anything, and an old, deep-seated fear began to creep its way into her thoughts.

"Good morning princess, rise and shine." Darcy's soothing yet somehow also patronizing voice cut through the blackness. "You seem to be having a bit of a problem, whatever is the manner?"

Stella snapped back at the witch, turning her head in what she thought was the direction of Darcy's voice.

"I can't see! Though I'm sure you already know that." Darcy laughed at Stella's indignant tone, giving the princess of Solaria a fright as her next words came from right beside her ear.

"That's right pixie, and you won't be seeing much of anything ever again!" Darcy's voice had turned nasty and Stella felt bile in her throat as certain dark memories from her childhood rose up in her mind.

In her mind she was a child again, 8 or 9 years old. She was wandering her father's palace when she had found the secret passageway. It had been an accident, her hand resting on just the right stone, the section of wall sliding open, piquing her youthful curiosity. She had scampered inside immediately, and was too busy looking around the large room to notice the same section of wall begin to slide shut. As it closed it took the only light in the room with it, leaving Stella in pitch darkness.

She ran to the wall and banged on it, crying out for help, but this was a little-used part of the castle, and no one was nearby. She tried to calm herself by using her budding magical talent to conjure a source of light, but her control was not what it would one day be thanks to the Ring of Solaria, and the light flickered and died almost immediately.

She spent nearly three days in that darkness, three days in which the entire kingdom was thrown into a panic, three days of fear and sorrow compounded by hunger. When the wall finally slid open, the sudden intrusion of light hurt her eyes enough to make her scream, but soon she was in her father's arms, and the world was swiftly righting itself once again.

The circumstances of her situation had done damage to her vision. They had found a spell strong enough to restore the health of her eyes, but there had been a day or so when Stella believed she would never see again, that that horrible darkness had stolen all light from her forever. She had been wrong, but that seed of fear remained... and now it was growing again.

"That's right princess, only this time the light won't be coming back." Darcy sneered in her ear, causing Stella to whimper. "I had a nice time delving into your mind last night, I found so many wonderful things to play with, but I thought this was the most fitting to start with; the princess of light, in eternal darkness..."

Stella began to cry, nothing like her occasional princess tantrums, these were tears of fear, terror, tears Darcy relished. "Oh, don't be sad Stella, I've brought a surprise to cheer you up."

Stella wanted to ignore her, she knew Darcy was deceptive, but a small part of her couldn't help but hope. "y-yes?"

"Yes, Mistress." Darcy corrected her, but apparently willing to let this mistake slide. "You may come in now."

Stella heard footsteps, or at least they sounded like footsteps, and then a voice that brought more tears to her eyes, only they were tears of joy.

"Stella? Stella! you're ok!" She would know that voice anywhere and choked out a tearful response. "Brandon? Snookums is that really you?"

"Of course, it's me sunshine, i'm here." Stella heard his voice get closer to her, but Darcy interrupted.

"Ah ah ah," Stella heard Darcy's voice shift, a warped tone Stella had not heard since... Riven. "You don't want her anymore big boy, after all, you belong to me now, right?" Stella cried out as Brandon answered.

"Yes, Mistress Darcy, of course, I belong to you now." Stella had expected the same empty, lifeless tone she remembered from Riven, but there was actual emotion in Brandon's voice. That couldn't be, love spells didn't work like that!

"Good boy, now come here and kiss me." Though she could not see anything, Stella could hear perfectly as her boyfriend and her captor began to make out in front of her, the sounds made her sick, but she couldn't get them out of her head. She screamed for it to stop, and suddenly, there was silence.

After a few moments Stella whispered a hello to the darkness, then spoke Brandon's name tentatively. Darcy's voice floated into her ears from another part of the room.

"Brandon? Your boyfriend isn't here princess, it's just us girls." Stella shook her head in confusion.

"But you- and Brandon- he was- you were-" Darcy laughed as Stella stumbled over her words.

"Brandon and I were what? Were you imagining me doing things to your man? Wow Stella, I didn't realize you liked that sort of thing."

Stella's cheeks burned at Darcy's insinuation.

"But... but..." Darcy was trying not to laugh to loudly at this point.

"I know I took away your sight, but really? Brandon is down in the dungeon, my only interest in him is as leverage to keep you obedient, leave it to the Winx Club's resident bimbo to have such stupid ideas."

Stella felt humiliated, she knew what she'd heard, but, had she? Had that just been another of Darcy's tricks? She was letting her fear get to her, that was it. She whimpered and curled up on the bed again, Darcy's teasing tone coming to her from where she thought the door to her room was.

"Though now that I think about it, Brandon is pretty hot. Almost as dumb as you, but a pretty distraction I suppose... Maybe I'll go find out what all the fuss is for myself..."

Stella shot out of bed, tripping over to the door, pounding on it and the nearby wall, screaming at Darcy, first threatening, then begging, pleading with her to stay away from Brandon, finally sinking to her knees, crying and mumbling to herself.

"N-no... please... Mistress..."


	7. Deaf-Mute

**A/N:** Not much to say for this particular note, only that I hope some of you are enjoying this story as much as I've been enjoying writing it

**Disclaimer:** Figured it was about time to do another one of these. I am not, in fact, the owner of the Winx Club franchise.

Deaf/Mute

Darcy sighed contentedly as she rolled Riven's waking form off of herself and slowly, languidly, worked her way out of bed. She sent Riven off to shower and prepare for the day as she found herself repeating a ritual she had started ever since moving in to Red Fountain; basking in victory.

She thought about the rush she had first received when she had her sisters had completed the Covenix ritual, about the steady increase it was still giving her powers. She thought about their victory, how effortless it had been. She smiled as she thought of her visit with the Solarian princess the day before; it had been the height of their conquest to be able to exert such perfect control over her former enemy, and she was just getting started…

Her thoughts turned to the Melodian fairy she had yet to spend any time with, a truly wicked smile forming on her face. While Darcy had eagerly awaited revenge against the Winx as a whole, it was revenge against Musa specifically that Darcy knew would give her the most joy. Too long had that pixie brat paraded her victory over Darcy… but those days were finished. Riven was back with her, under a new, powerful spell that was slowly changing him, someday soon she wouldn't need the spell anymore, all the love he had had for Musa would be hers and hers alone.

She had already planned her revenge on Musa, and she smiled as she started her spell, knowing the fairy of music was still sleeping, this was the perfect time to begin weaving her magic. Musa would awaken to her own personal hell, and that would only be the beginning…

Despite the circumstances, Musa had found falling asleep rather easy. The fairy of music was most at home with sound all around her, and the sounds of the renovations Darcy was inflicting on Red Fountain had lulled her to sleep quite comfortably. Waking to silence on the other hand, was rather disconcerting. Perhaps Darcy had given her press-ganged workforce a break? But all at the same time?

Musa sat up and yawned... and blinked curiously when the familiar sound of her own yawn did not reach her ears. She shook her head a bit to banish the cobwebs of sleep and hummed a few bars to get her energy flowing... and gasped in horror as no sound left her throat. The gasp produced no sound as well, and Musa began to breathe rapid, shallow breaths.

She had lost her voice before, but this was different. She couldn't even hear the whispering, croaking sounds one could still produce at those times. She got to her feet, trying to slow her breathing, and walked to the door of her room, knocking on it experimentally, the lack of auditory response causing her to stumble back and sink onto the bed once more.

The door opened a moment later and Darcy walked through, a wicked smirk on her face. She stood there, eyeing Musa for a few seconds before Musa nearly jumped off the bed, startled by a sound (a sound!) inside her head.

"Good morning pixie, sleep well?" Darcy's words echoed in her mind as she tried to shout back at her. Darcy merely shook her head and tapped one finger against her temple. Musa stared at her for a moment, then tried thinking her intended message.

"What did you do to me Darcy! Why can't I hear anything!" She heard the words in her mind, but even as she stopped thinking them, she lost the memory of their sound. She knew what they were, but the sound of her own voice using the words was gone.

Darcy frowned and waved one hand and Musa found herself on the floor, on her knees, forced to look up at the shadow witch whose voice invaded her thoughts once again.

"That's Mistress Darcy you little bitch! And what I've done is make sure your world will be silent for the rest of your life! My voice will be the only sound you are allowed to hear." Musa could hear the evil satisfaction in Darcy's final words, and her whole being filled with dread as the reality of her situation sunk in. No sound but Darcy's voice for the rest of her life? No comfort of her own breathing? No music? The tears started to flow at that thought, music was her life, and Darcy had taken it all from her.

Darcy's voice once again intruded on her thoughts.

"No music... and no Riven..." Musa felt sorrow mix with fury and she lunged at Darcy, only to be forced back into the nearby chair magically. Musa struggled hopelessly as she shouted at Darcy in her mind.

"What have you done with Riven!" Musa forced herself to remember every despicable thing Darcy had done to Riven, the damage she had done to his psyche, to his and Musa's relationship.

Darcy's smile was the most frightening thing Musa had ever seen, the witch's laugh echoing through her mind.

"I've only reminded him of what we have, shown him what we can have again... what we will have again... And I didn't even need to use magic this time."

Musa shook her head rapidly at the last sentence. There was no way Riven would go back to Darcy willingly! He hated her as much as Musa did, if not more. She glared at Darcy as hatefully as she could manage, but Darcy only took a step to the side and opened the door again, ushering Riven inside.

Musa shouted his name; or would have, if she still had a voice, but was dismayed when he only spared her a quick glance before turning to gaze at Darcy with a look Musa had only seen directed at herself before. Darcy smiled at him and allowed him to kiss her, smirking at Musa as she pulled away from him.

Musa's emotions were a mess, he had to be under a spell, he had to be! Their eyes met, and to her horror she saw not strange colors, or strange light, his eyes looked normal, his expression normal. No evidence of magic as he gave her one of his practically trademarked smirks and kissing Darcy again.

Darcy watched Musa's pain with more pure joy than she had felt in a very, very long time. Among the powers Covenix had granted her, Darcy could now layer her spells, hiding her control over Riven behind an illusion of normalcy, all filtered through the spell that kept Musa's senses suppressed. Even if the music fairy were not gripped by confusion and fear, it would take quite the focus to realize even a fraction of the truth of this situation.

Musa tried to shut her eyes, but even with them closed she was filled with visions of Darcy and Riven, of them together, of them teasing and taunting her, enjoying their lives as she rotted away in the soundless prison Darcy had put her in. She watched Darcy push Riven into darker and darker acts; acts of death and destruction, acts of unspeakable darkness and evil. She watched the spirit of the man she loved die, replaced with a wicked void.

The visions disappeared as Darcy's voice intruded on her thoughts once more. New visions conjured as she spoke.

"Do you understand now pixie? Everything you had, is mine. Riven, a life of freedom, the sounds of life, the joy of music… After awhile you won't even remember what music sounds like. My voice will be the only sound your mind can recall." The volume of Darcy's words rose, filling Musa's mind. "Everything you see, everything you know, will be a reminder of my victory! My superiority! That your whole world exists because I allow it! That everything you were, everything you are, belongs to me!"

Darcy couldn't help but lose her usual composure a bit. This total victory was exhilarating, intoxicating. She had never truly admitted to herself how much she hated this one, pathetic fairy. How much she had desired this revenge for being humiliated by this insignificant little speck. Her new power was wonderful, her position over all of these fairies and specialists was amazing, even getting to torture Solaria's princess was a joy, but this... This was the dark heaven Darcy had always dreamed of!

Musa felt the weight of Darcy's words pressing on her soul, the darkness closing in around her thoughts, around her heart, Darcy's laugh echoing through her otherwise silent existence.

"Y-yes, Mistress Darcy..." Musa tried to stop herself thinking the words, tried to not see the wicked joy in Darcy's eyes, but she couldn't look away. She blinked, trying to block it out, and when her eyes opened again, Riven was back, he and Darcy were all over each other, and Musa could only watch, could only sink into a bottomless pit of despair.


	8. Lightning Round

**A/N:** Time to see what sort of terrible fun Stormy is getting up to! Thanks once again to all my readers, I hope you're all safe and healthy.

Lightning Round

Tecna had always been a light sleeper and having to sleep on a simple cot in a large cage did not make it any easier. This also meant Tecna's mind wasted no time in bringing her back to the reality of her situation.

Upon arriving at Alfea the previous evening, Stormy had "escorted" Tecna and Aisha to their current location; a classroom near what had been Faragonda's office. The classroom had been converted to what amounted to a large prison cell, with bars over the windows, the doors locked magically, and only the cots for furniture.

Tecna looked over at her sleeping friend and mentally berated herself for being so distraught by her own situation. Aisha's headstrong personality had drawn Stormy's ire during the brief evening, and Tecna observed the dark spots on the princess' tossing and turning form that indicated where Stormy had struck her with her lightning.

Tecna had tried to reason with Stormy, but she might have had more luck trying to reason with the lightning bolts themselves. Icy and Darcy would likely have paused long enough to listen, perhaps even been convinced to stop with enough pleading, but the youngest member of the Trix was the furthest from rational that Tecna had ever witnessed in another person.

The door to their makeshift prison slammed open, jolting Aisha from sleep, a painful groan sounding from her as part of her fell off of the cot. As if summoned by Tecna's thoughts, Stormy stood in the doorway, looking less angry than the previous evening, but the smile that replaced yesterday's glare was equally frightening if not more so.

"Good morning Pixies!" Stormy's tone sounded somehow playful and vicious at the same time. She rolled her eyes at Aisha as the princess of Andros pulled herself up off the floor. "Oh, don't get up princess, I'm here for the nerd." She turned on Tecna with a wicked grin. "We're going to have so much fun today!"

Tecna did not respond, she simply rose from the cot and, after glancing at Aisha as reassuringly as possible, followed Stormy from the room. Perhaps she should have said something, resisted in some way, but that was likely to only result in Stormy lashing out at her, or worse, Aisha. For now, she would comply, and hope that her behavior would keep Stormy somewhere resembling calm and less likely to lash out.

Tecna tried not to look into the other rooms they passed. Most of them had been converted into holding areas for the fairies and specialists not actively being used for other purposes, and each one was a painful reminder of their failure to stop the witches this time. Fortunately, she was distracted from her surroundings by Stormy, who was all too eager to explain the day's itinerary to her captive.

"I've always hated girls like you." Stormy said casually. "Smart girls who act so prim and proper, like you're too smart to ever be sad, or angry. Looking down on the rest of us for daring to have feelings."

In the privacy of her own thoughts, Tecna found Stormy's assessment a bit ridiculous. While she didn't doubt Stormy had met girls like she had described, Tecna had always tried her best to be kind to those around her, to use her intellect to help, not hinder. Trying to refute the witch's argument was definitely not the best course of action at the time however, so Tecna merely continued to walk and listen.

"So today I'm going to prove you're not as smart as you think you are..." Tecna had no time to consider Stormy's statement as they reached their destination, a classroom that seemed to be relatively unchanged form before the occupation. The only major difference was the almost complete lack of desks and chairs; only a single student's desk and chair, as well as the teacher's desk, remained in the room.

Stormy gestured absently toward the chair as she walked towards the front of the room.

|I'm going to give you a little test, pixie." Stormy waved a hand and an advanced math problem, one Tecna was certain would give her no trouble, appeared on the display board. "I have the answers here, and if you make a mistake..." Stormy raised one hand and cackled as she sent a jolt of lightning through Tecna who cried out and struggled to remain standing, letting herself slump into the available chair.

The test was similar to others Tecna had taken during her most recent term here at Alfea, high-level mathematics to be sure, but analytical subjects like this were Tecna's specialty. It was almost invigorating to be working her mind like this again, and the first half-dozen questions went by without incident. As Tecna confidently answered question 7, the passive, bored look on Stormy's face changed as her lips curled into that familiar wicked smile, and her hand raised before Tecna could react.

"Wrong!" Stormy cackled manically as Tecna screamed, the dark lightning coursing through her body.

It took Tecna a moment to recover, even breathing hurt at this point. There was no way she had gotten that question wrong; her calculations had been perfect! And yet... Stormy could be lying to her, telling her she was wrong when she wasn't... But why even bother with the test then...?

"Oh well, better luck next time..."

Tecna was a bit shaken up but forced herself to continue; as long as she was doing this, Stormy's attention was kept away from worse possible ideas. She pushed through the next questions, regaining her confidence as she made it through over a dozen more questions with no problem.

The next shock came without warning, Stormy's cackling ringing in her ears as she tried to determine what she had done wrong this time. She went over her calculations in her head again; they were right, weren't they? The doubt crept into her mind without her even noticing, but she ignored it and pressed onward.

Tecna lost track of time long before they were finished her brain filled with numbers, her body sore and her nerves rattled from the intermittent shocks. With each wrong question she found herself less confident in her answers, in her processes, and that made her feel smaller, weaker, fragile, losing faith in the strongest aspect of her being.

"That's enough for today pixie, let's get you back to your room." Stormy's voice was full of false kindness as Tecna staggered to her feet.

"Y-yes, Lady Stormy..." Stormy had demanded Tecna and Aisha call her 'Lady' the night before, and right now Tecna wanted to do as much as possible to placate the weather witch and save herself any more pain.

Stormy smiled arrogantly at Tecna as she led the defeated fairy back to her room. To think she was this beaten after only one day! Stormy stifled a giggle as she thought of how she'd be after a week, a month! Soon the high and mighty techno-geek would understand just how beneath Stormy she really was! She couldn't wait for the day that prissy pixie truly believed she was as dumb and useless as Stormy knew she was.

After locking Tecna back inside her cell, Stormy returned to what had been Faragonda's office. The room was a mess, papers and other objects tossed about by the tornado Stormy had summoned with glee the day she had made herself at home. She hoped the princess of Andros would be a bit more of a challenge to break, she wanted a reason to really cut loose...


	9. Waking Nightmares

**A/N**: This is it folks, the final chapter! Well... sort of. This is the last chapter I currently have planned, but I would be happy to write more. Perhaps i'll have some of the witches trade fairies for a couple days, or see how one or more of the Winx progress beyond the chapters I've written, or maybe one of you has an idea? As always thank you for reading, and if you have any questions, comments, reviews. etc... Feel free to leave them here.

Waking Nightmares

Stormy had gotten an early start to the day. She had had to "discipline" a particularly rebellious fairy and was gleefully pinning the unfortunate girl's wings to her ever-growing trophy wall as she thought about the rest of her day.

She thought of the princess of Andros, likely still asleep in the cell she shared with that brainiac, Tecna. There was a fairy with an attitude problem if she'd ever met one; the problem being her complete inability to recognize the natural superiority of witches over fairies. She always had some sort of uppity, goody-goody speech prepared whenever Stormy and her sisters had done battle with the Winx. She wondered if the dark-skinned princess spent time in front of her mirror practicing them?

But Icy had given her dominion over Alfea for the purpose of fixing the attitudes of fairies like that one, and today, Stormy thought to herself, was a wonderful day to get to work...

Aisha had only recently awoken, her sleep had been a bit less disturbed than the previous night, the pain of her injuries had reduced considerably, and her nightmares had been mercifully mild. She had spent the previous night comforting Tecna once Stormy had returned her to their shared quarters. She had never seen the Zenithian fairy so rattled before; she was shaking, babbling about being wrong about something. Aisha had calmed her as best as she could and then tucked her into bed, watching her for a few minutes, fuming at whatever Stormy had done and trying not to cry at the obvious pain her friend was experiencing.

The Princess of Andros knew that she had to keep up hope. After Bloom, the Winx often looked to her for strength, and she would not fail to do that for Tecna. Turning to Tecna's cot she saw the pink-haired girl was still sleeping, and it seemed that in sleep she had managed to calm down some; her breathing was steady and she wasn't moving much. Aisha sighed with relief and stood up to stretch her legs at the exact moment Stormy decided to come crashing through their door with all her usual lack of subtlety.

"Good morning Pixies!" Stormy's sudden entrance startled Tecna from her peaceful rest, causing her to scream and shrink back against the wall at the head of the cot. Stormy advanced on Tecna with a wicked grin on her face, a bit of lightning sparking between her fingers. "It's nice to see you too Tecna, but sadly I don't have time to play with you today." She rounded on Aisha and dropped any semblance of friendliness from her voice. "Come with me missy, we have a lot to do today..."

Aisha gave her a defiant glance, but walked over to her when she noticed Stormy's hand still sparking in Tecna's direction.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming, just leave her alone." She managed to not wither beneath the glare Stormy shot her, but let out the breath she was holding when the witch turned away form Tecna and headed toward the door. Tecna whimpered as Aisha made her way out as well; she turned to reassure her friend but Stormy pulled her outside and sealed the door behind her.

"I don't like your attitude princess... and I never have. So, starting today, that's going to change."

Aisha almost laughed, but stifled it just as Stormy turned to look at her again. Aisha forced her face to remain neutral, only giving Stormy a questioning look, causing the weather witch's smile to widen.

"Oh yes... You see, in the last few days I've gotten quite a bit of practice dealing with fairy attitude problems, and I've found some wonderful ways to do it that seem to always get me results." Stormy chuckled as she ushered Aisha into what had been Faragonda's office... And Aisha gasped, nearly doubling over with nausea as she saw Stormy's trophy wall. On the wall were a few mounted Specialist weapons, but the majority of the wall was taken up by fairy wings... wings that had clearly been torn from their owner's backs.

Aisha slid to her knees, wanting to scream, cry, rage, throw up, and faint all at the same time.

"H-how... how could you!?" She looked up at Stormy with angry, pleading eyes, her whole body shaking. The gleeful cruelty in Stormy's eyes only brightened as she stared back down at the fairy beneath her.

"Oh, it was pretty easy. Once a fairy is weak enough, all it takes is a little something to hold her down and one good pull!" Stormy cackled as Aisha did her best to hold down the bile rising in her throat. "Now I'm not allowed to do something so permanent to you or your little nerd friend, but there are plenty of other pixies here I can play with..." Recalling something Darcy had told her about Aisha, Stormy's grin twisted further. "It's too bad I don't have any actual pixie wings to put up there, lucky your little friends weren't around when we took over..."

Aisha's eyes widened at the thought of Piff or any of the other pixies in Stormy's monstrous clutches. Stormy squatted down to get closer to her face.

"Darcy told me you have a problem with nightmares, maybe now that you have more to worry about, they won't be so bad individually?" She cackled again as Aisha shrunk back from her a bit, but Stormy had shut the door, and there was nowhere to truly get away from the witch. "I can see the ideas forming in your head already. How long will it be until we find them? What will we do to them when we do? How much of it will we make you watch?"

Aisha was a strong girl, a proud princess, a powerful fairy. But even the strongest person could only hold up under so much strain for so long without cracking a little. The tears started to flow as Aisha tried to look away from Stormy, only for the witch to grab her face and force her to look back into her eyes.

"But that's not all! You saw your little friend after just one day; give me a month and we'll see how much of a hopeless wreck she is then! Or maybe I'll visit your betrothed, a wizard like him must have plenty of magic my sisters and I could extract from him, hmmmm?"

If Aisha were not already on the floor she would have dropped right then. Every word out of Stormy's mouth was forming into waking nightmares that pushed vividly into her thoughts: the pixies wings on Stormy's wall, Tecna a catatonic mess, Nabu's drained body on the floor.

Stormy took hold of Aisha's collar and forced her to her feet, letting the fairy slump against the wall, glassy-eyed and shaking. "Don't give out on me yet pixie. The days only just started and we have so much to do!" The weather witch loomed over the princess with her usual slasher smile. "I haven't proved to you that reality is much worse than any nightmare you've ever had!"

Aisha was sure Stormy was using some of her wind magic to move her, as her own legs barely had enough strength to even twitch at this point. She led her through the halls of Alfea, every good memory of her time here being overpowered by the torment of the present. Her eyes drifted closed but a sharp shock forced them open again.

"We're here princess, this is no time to be sleeping!" Aisha glanced around the room, they were at one of the gymnasiums, it had been converted into two large holding areas for the various fairy students. The students in one area seemed physically intact, though Aisha could see varying degrees of fear and despair in their eyes. Stormy noticed the direction of her gaze and pointed them out.

"Those are the fairies that have been behaving," she chuckled a moment and glanced at the other cell before returning her attention to the first group, "They're available to any witch who needs anything fairy-related for her rituals and experiments and such." She noted the look on Aisha's face and rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't worry, they can't do anything permanently harmful to them…" Aisha started to sigh in relief but was interrupted, "Without mine or my sisters' permission of course!" She cackled as Aisha paled again, but turned her attention to the second group, all of whom were damaged in some way. Some had torn wings, some had no wings at all, others had burn marks on various parts of their bodies.

"Those pixies needed to learn their place the hard way, so they get to be my toys." Stormy's smile made Aisha sicker than she already felt. "That's right princess, I get to do whatever I want to them… Most of the time I only punish them when they deserve it but sometimes, I just have to blow off some steam!" She punctuated her statement by releasing a bolt of lightning through the bars, striking a couple fairies unfortunate enough to be nearest to her.

"No! Please Stormy st-," Aisha's plea was cut off as Stormy turned the lightning on her, deranged fury in her eyes.

"That's Lady Stormy you brainless! Pathetic! Little bitch!" She held the spell for a few moments, watching Aisha writhe in agony, but stopping before she lost consciousness, grabbing Aisha's chin with one hand and pulling her close. "And no, I won't stop! Don't you get it! I don't have to listen to you! You don't have any power over anyone anymore!" Her voice got louder, addressing all the fairies in the former gym. "None of you have any power! All of you live and die because I say so! No more fairies having a say in how things are done! All of you exist for whatever we witches decide!" Stormy's words devolved into maniacal cackling, launching her lightning again into the second group of fairies, forcing Aisha to watch as she tortured them for no reason other than simple whim.

As the tears fell from her eyes, Aisha realized Stormy had been right before, this life, this existence, was worse than anything that came to her in her sleep, and she found herself yearning for her nightmares to take her away from this waking terror again…


	10. Ice Queen

**A/N:** For once I actually have a substantial amount to say in an author's note (I know right?) so before I get into that, now is a good time to reinsert the good old disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club or any of its characters etc...

Firstly, Surprise! This story is officially back to incomplete as I have decided to extend it a few chapters.

I'd like to thank **xeadasreign** for all the wonderful reviews and for providing me with the inspiration I needed to take this story further than I had originally intended.

A bit of clarification for this and future chapters; I am primarily a Seasons 1-3 guy, who likes some world elements from other seasons. As such, this story will ignore anything major plot contradictions between it and any season after 3. I mention this because I plan to delve a bit into the Trix back story in these chapters, and my version of that will contradict certain (terrible, imo) ideas in recent seasons.

* * *

Ice Queen

Icy was having a very good day. As a matter of fact, Icy had been having a very good day every day for just over a week now. After three years of defeat after aggravating defeat, Icy and her sisters had finally and totally triumphed over the Winx Club, the only fairies truly able to stand against them in their quest for domination. And to be able to remind those fairies of their defeat every day after? That was the true victory.

A particularly wicked thought crossed Icy's mind and she rang the small bell sitting on a table beside the throne she occupied. The enchanted bell would ring directly into the mind of a certain fairy princess, who would appear at Icy's side only a minute later, a wonderful (to Icy at least) look of passive obedience on her face, complimenting her maid's attire well.

"Yes, my Queen?" Bloom allowed her eyes to dart to the other end of the throne room for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that Flora was still sleeping and the plants around her still lived; it seemed Icy had thankfully not been taking out any frustrations on her recently.

Icy stood up from her throne and gestured for Bloom to follow her, waiting until they had left the throne room before speaking.

"I'm in a good mood today princess, so I'm going to allow you to ask me some of the questions I'm sure are floating around that otherwise-empty head of yours."

Bloom hesitated for a moment, thrown off by Icy's uncharacteristic generosity. Despite Icy's offer, she didn't want to push the witch too far.

"Well, ummm... I guess I've always wondered why... Why do you want powers so badly, why are you and your sisters the way you are?"

Icy chuckled a little as she turned to address the fallen fairy.

"What? Are you expecting some tragic backstory? That my sisters and I had some horrible childhood or traumatic experience that turned us evil? That you could use that to appeal to my better nature? Well I have some bad news princess, we've always been like this, and our home lives were about as perfect as a witch could want."

Icy smiled, somehow warmly and yet still wickedly as the memories came rushing back to her. "Our mother was a witch specializing in water magic and alchemy. She was powerful, smart, wicked, and loving and caring towards her family." She laughed at the confused look on Bloom's face, "Yes, you can be a wicked witch and still love your family. Mom was always strict with us when it came to practicing our powers, and she suffered no disobedience, but she loved us, and provided for us with as much love as any fairy."

Icy scoffed to punctuate her statement before continuing her trip down memory lane. "Dad was a warlock with powerful shadow magic. He was cunning, resourceful, impulsive, and..." She gave Bloom a pointed look the fairy didn't quite understand, "completely faithful to his family. He wasn't perfect, he definitely favored Darcy over Stormy and I, but it honestly made sense for him to do so, and he still loved us."

Icy stopped talking for a bit as they walked through a more populated corridor and Bloom kept quiet as well, doing her best to be as small a presence as possible. Icy seemed almost... happy, and Bloom was determined to do nothing to change that.

As they passed into another large chamber, Icy started talking again.

"As for your power, why wouldn't I want it? It's the most powerful source of magic in the universe, and when I have it, the Trix will rule the entire Magical Dimension!" Icy took a moment to calm herself, Dad had always warned her about the dangerous of getting 'maniacal'. "When my sisters and I were younger, Dad sat each of us down and asked us what we intended to do with our power, what did we want? As I was the oldest, he asked me first, and I told him I wanted to be a queen. He told me to use my power to assert my dominance over as much as I could, and told me the legend of the Dragon Fire, the greatest power of all. That was the day I decided I would have it, and someday soon, I will."

Icy grinned wickedly at Bloom, feeling a cold fire reigniting in her belly. She waved a hand at her dismissively and turned to head back towards the throne room.

"I'm done with you for now princess, I think I'll go have a... chat, with dear Flora."

Bloom's eyes widened and she struggled internally with wanting to beg Icy not too, but also confident that doing so would only make the 'chat' worse for her friend. Instead she simply nodded, murmured a soft, "Yes, my queen." And turned to leave, trying to stop her body from shaking, to stop the tears from streaming down her face.

* * *

Icy stepped back into her throne room to find Flora just beginning to stir. The ice witch smiled wickedly and walked over to the restrained fairy, taking her chin in one hand and forcing her blinking, waking gaze up towards Icy's own.

"Good morning flower girl, I have some wonderful news to share with you!"

The tone of Icy's voice jolted Flora to as awake a state as she could manage, and she fought the panic growing inside her.

"Y-yes my queen?" Flora's voice was so soft as to nearly be inaudible, but Icy heard her and her smile widened, releasing Flora's chin and taking a couple steps back.

"I had a wonderful talk with Bloom a little while ago, and its inspired me, I've finally decided where my sisters and I will expand our control to next now that Magix is totally ours."

Flora shuddered at Icy's enthusiasm and began to repeat a prayer in her mind as Icy continued.

"There are all sorts of worlds in the magic dimension that could use our touch of course... But I feel like Linphea would benefit from it the most, don't you?" Icy's tone was as dark, as cruel as she could make it, and Flora began to sob as her prayer went unanswered.

"P-please... my queen... I'm sure they know how powerful you are now... I'm sure they'll surrender to you... there won't be any need for-" Icy cut her off with an arrogant laugh.

"Oh Flora... poor, simple, stupid Flora," Icy snapped out the last adjective in her trademark cruel manner, "I'm completely aware of all of that, I just. don't. care." She stepped closer to Flora once more, glaring down at the nature fairy. "Your planet, your people, are going to suffer." Icy's glare became a smile again, one that sent chills through Flora even before she truly understood its purpose. "But more than anything, I'm looking forward to meeting that sister of yours..."

Flora turned as white as Icy's hair and began to sob, scream, and beg all at the same time.

"No! Ic-my queen please! Have mercy! please don't hurt her, I'll do anything! please!" Icy started laughing and waited patiently until Flora's fit subsided.

"I know you will Flora, I know you will... But there's nothing you can do that will make me happier than having your sister dragged into this very room, having a tearful reunion with you, her dear sister... And once the two of you have cried your tears, I will kill her, right here, in front of you."

Icy laughed again as she turned and walked back to her throne, closing her eyes and basking in the sounds of screaming and begging and blubbering coming from the captive fairy. This pain, this exquisite suffering, this clear symbol of the power Icy had obtained over those around her, this was what she wanted, more than anything...


	11. Dark Desires

**A/N:** Wow, my longest chapter ever, but there are a few reasons for that. Sometime in the not-too-near, not-too-far future, I plan to write a story about the Trix and their parents (the OC parents I've created here anyway), so I wanted to sort of introduce them. Also, I just love Darcy so writing her makes me happy. Finally, I intended to include Musa in this chapter as well but it just didn't work, so she and Darcy may get an extra chapter down the line somewhere. Thanks again to everyone for reading, and to the couple people who have left reviews, I hope you're all still enjoying this story as much as I am.

Dark Desires

After almost two weeks of waking up with Riven in her bed, Darcy was glad that it showed no sign of being any less wonderful. One major component of that was getting to remind herself each day that Riven was hers' and Musa had nothing. The spells' she had cast on him were still at full strength, and continued to redirect his misguided affections for that stupid fairy to her, where they belonged.

Darcy ran a hand through the sleeping specialist's hair before forcing herself out of bed; dad had always told her there was a fine line between basking in what you had, and laziness. Not that anyone could accuse Darcy of laziness lately. Between working her magic on Riven, keeping her two favorite fairies 'entertained', supervising the continuing work being done on Red Fountain (and Alfea, Darcy loved her sister dearly, but Stormy couldn't be trusted to properly supervise anything), and more research into solving Icy's Dragon Flame problem, Darcy was quite the busy witch.

It was during a period of research later that morning that Darcy was struck with an idea, and hurried in the direction of Stella's room. If she was lucky, a similar thought hadn't crossed the blonde bimbo's mind yet. Darcy chuckled to herself at the thought of Stella thinking at all, and announced herself quite suddenly as she entered the room, startling the still-sightless fairy so badly she nearly fell out of her chair.

"Good morning Princess..." Darcy's tone was playful, which made Stella shiver at the thought of whatever cruel act the witch was planning this time. "Oh, don't worry sweetie, I won't be here long, I just need to see if-" Stella jumped a bit again as Darcy grabbed hold of her wrist, "-oh good, it's still here, I'll just be taking this..."

Finally realizing what Darcy was doing, Stella tried to wrench her hand out of the witch's grasp.

"N-no, you can't-" Darcy tightened her grip and cut her off as she pulled the ring from Stella's finger,

"It seems I actually can. And don't worry, I'll take good care of it, I know how important and powerful this is, probably more than you do." A memory crossed into Darcy's mind and she chuckled, "Just be happy I let you keep the hand."

Stella reached around blindly once Darcy let go of her wrist, trying in vain to find the witch and retrieve the Ring of Solaria from her, but Darcy's comment and laughter caused her to stop; that certainly wasn't a mental image she needed!

Darcy noticed Stella's horrified look and laughed again, "Oh yes princess, that was a possibility, consider yourself lucky your ring wasn't enchanted so others couldn't remove it or something, I might have had to take a page from my dad's book."

The thought of Darcy coming from a line of people who removed others limbs was both disgusting, and honestly not very surprising to Stella, and the witch laughed at her again as those emotions crossed her face.

"Tell you what blondie, I'm going to tell you a little story. If you behave yourself and listen, maybe I'll give you your ring back when I'm finished with it, and maybe I won't go visit your boyfriend for my 'entertainment' today."

Stella gasped, but lowered herself back onto the chair, wishing her imagination would stop coming up with possible definitions for Darcy's entertainment. She had to admit that despite her situation, she was mildly curious. Darcy had not spoken to her much during her captivity beyond rude awakenings and mind games.

Darcy laughed internally, she hadn't once actually visited Stella's boy-toy since overseeing his imprisonment on the first day of their conquest, and as long as Stella behaved, she really had no plans too. After all, she mused to herself, Riven was all the man she needed...

"As I'm sure you can imagine, my dad is a warlock. He has shadow powers similar to mine, and taught me most of what I know." Darcy paused for a moment, smiling as she thought back to their training sessions. "But this story is a bit further back."

Stella realized that despite three years of battling the Trix, none of the Winx really knew anything about them. Maybe Darcy would give away something they could use after escaping, whenever that happened...

"My mom is a powerful witch; she is the source of our descent from the Ancestral Witches after all." Stella could hear the dark pride in Darcy's voice, as if that was something to be proud of!

"When dad made the decision to propose to mom, he knew it had to be impressive. He had a reputation for flashy displays, despite his dark powers, so he decided to get her the most valuable ring he could." Darcy could almost hear her dad's voice telling the story, see mom smirking at him whenever he embellished his exploits when regaling his daughters with his escapades. "I'm sure you know of the world of Geonia?"

Stella nodded indignantly, just barely stopping a biting "duh!" from escaping her lips. Anyone with an even passing interest in fashion knew about the Realm of Gems. Everyone who was anyone (including Stella herself, obviously) had accessories made from Geonian crystals.

Darcy shook her head "of course you do, what a total surprise..." Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she went back to her story. "Well then you're aware that the royal family of Geonia possesses the most valuable jewelry in the entire magical dimension." This was not a question; she didn't actually care if the Solarian princess knew this or not. "This was about 25 years ago, and the king of Geonia had recently given his daughter a ring for her 18th birthday. The Geonian Royal Jewelers had worked for nearly a year, picking out the most valuable, most beautiful, and most magically resonant gems from the planet's many mines, and my dad knew that it alone was good enough for the love of his life."

Stella noticed a shift in Darcy's tone, her reminiscing had taken a soft tone that Stella recognized from any girl gushing over romance; who knew Darcy could be anything resembling normal?

"Dad was no stranger to using his powers for things like theft. Shadows are great for things like that of course, and really, if you have the power to take what you want, why don't you?"

Stella almost facepalmed. Only a few seconds and Darcy was already back to the witch she knew and hated, oh well.

"Dad once asked my sisters and I what we wanted in life. I told him I wanted to be like him, and he told me to do that I needed to be ready to take what I wanted from life, no matter what it was..."

Darcy shook herself out of her reverie and proceeded with her story.

"Getting to Geonia was the easy part. Not many people knew what my dad looked like so he flew in like everyone else; the castle was another story. Given the value of both the people and the things inside, Castle Geonia has better than average security, both physical and magical, but dad was prepared, he always was."

Stella could hear the confident smirk that no doubt sat on Darcy's face at the moment and it took all of her willpower not to roll her eyes.

"The whole operation took a few days, most of which were spent working his trademark charm on a castle maid to make entry easier." Stella made a gagging sound and Darcy laughed, "Before you ask, no, mom would not have minded if she had known, nor did she mind after the fact. Witches and warlocks are way less uptight about things like that. Oh and-"

Stella screamed as a wave of darkness and pure terror assaulted her mind, subsiding only moments later, but leaving her shivering in fear.

"-don't interrupt me." Darcy drank in the rush of fear and made sure the Solarian fairy was paying attention again before she continued. "It worked, obviously, and the poor girl happily let dad in through a side entrance late one evening." Darcy chuckled at the look of worry in Stella's eyes. "Relax princess, he didn't do anything you're thinking about. He knocked her out, with a potion, and left her tied up in the pantry. Ok... maybe he snuck one kiss before the potion, he always changed that part of the story."

Stella found it very easy to imagine everything Darcy described; she could definitely believe the Trix had come from someone like that. Her thoughts drifted to Brandon, and how long it had been since she'd been with him. The thought saddened her, but she tried to cheer herself up by thinking of the ways he was obviously superior to the Trix' criminal dad.

"Once he was inside his shadow magic made it easy to hide from prying eyes, and most people don't think to put magical defenses inside. Honestly, the whole evening would have been relatively painless for all involved, had Geonia's princess not been as stubborn as some other fairy princess' I could mention..."

Stella smiled triumphantly at Darcy's disparaging comment. She had been rather proud of herself for holding up as well as she had so far. Her lack of sight had forced her to learn to pick up on things more with her other senses, and was always happy when she heard that little edge of irritation in Darcy's voice. She was careful not to push too hard, for Brandon and Musa's sake, but every little victory made her feel good.

"A little misdirection, and a falling candle holder, got the guards away from the princess's door. The princess had no idea anything was happening until dad woke her with a tendril of shadow over her mouth. Now dad reasonably demanded that she remove the ring and give it to him and she would be unharmed, but the stupid pixie decided to be difficult and slapped dad across the face. It hardly hurt him, but it broke his concentration long enough to dispel the shadow over her mouth and she got in a good solid scream before he restrained her again."

Stella was cheering for the princess in her mind. Regardless of how the rest of the story went, anyone willing to resist evil like that was good in her book!

"Dad knew the guards were on their way, so he provided them with another distraction and achieved his goal in the same move, using a blade of shadow to 'separate' the princess from the hand wearing the ring."

Darcy grinned darkly at Stella's gasp and paling tone. "If she had just cooperated..." Darcy let her voice trail off. "Dad escaped out the window while the guards were tending to the poor princess and mom eventually found a ritual to disenchant the ring, she even preserved the hand." Darcy laughed again and Stella gagged, reflexively this time. "But dad still accomplished his goal, he got to sweep mom off her feet with the greatest ring on any world..." Her voice drifted back into gushy romance mode again. "I hope Riven and I have a story even half that romantic to tell our kids someday..."

Stella felt sick for a variety of reasons. Only a witch would hear a story involving theft, assault, and dismemberment and declare it romantic. There was also Darcy's delusions about Riven, which made her angry for Musa's sake and afraid for Riven.

Darcy stood up and headed toward the door, turning to address Stella one last time.

"That's all for now princess, I'm off to see if your little ring can help us get that Dragon Flame out of Bloom." She left Stella to ponder that doubtless terrible thought and hummed to herself as she locked the door and headed for her study again.


End file.
